What to Know About The Information’s 50 Most Promising Startups

It’s been a particularly tough year for startups. Venture funding is on pace for the lowest annual total since 2019, according to the PitchBook-National Venture Capital Association Venture Monitor. Silicon Valley Bank, an important cog in the startup finance machine, failed in March. One-time high-fliers such as Jasper AI, Hopin and Flexport have been humbled or shuttered.

That’s unless, of course, the startup is working in generative artificial intelligence, where money is pouring in and valuations are soaring. One challenge in creating this year’s edition of The Information 50, our annual list of promising startups, was finding AI companies that met our dual criteria for inclusion: They had raised less than $100 million and were valued at less than $1 billion. Our reporters found seven. The clearest pick was popular image-creation maker Midjourney, which is on pace to generate $200 million in revenue this year without having raised outside money.